Ascent Trip Report

Ryan and I set out early to hit the northern presidentials. WE arrived at the trailhead at about 845. It was a beautiful day and about 65 degrees when we hit the Caps Ridge trailhead. The caps ridge up to the summit of Jefferson was very steep and quite rough, requiring scrambling in some places. The hike from Jefferson to Adams was quite long. After a few early clouds burned off it was clear and the views were beautiful. We met up with a guy named Matt from Lowell on the the summit of Jefferson and hiked with him for the remainder of the day. Ryan and Matt summited Adams while I bypassed via Lowe's Path. We met up at the Madison Spring Hut where we had a late lunch, finishing at about 2pm. We then quickly, though painfully, summited Madison to finish our peak bagging for the dya. From this point we were all going to head back to the car at the Caps Ridge. I was struggling to make the hike back out of the valley that Madison Spring Hut sits in. I ended up aborting and heading down the Valley Way trail and Ryan and Matt continued back to the cars. I finished hiking at about 515 and waited at Appalachia for Ryan to finish. I did not hear back from him until 730 when he got off the trail. It was a long day of hiking, for me and especially for Ryan, and we definitely earned burgers and beers at Truants afterwards. After leaving the house at 545 AM to pick up Ryan I finally made it back home at 1215AM.